Wedding Poem II

This was my first attempt at a wedding poem for Casey and David.  She felt it was a bit too complicated for people to get in one oral reading, which was why I wrote the one that I posted on March 23rd (and read at their wedding.)  Sharing the first one just as a point of interest . . .

For Casey and David

In this land of your shared story
You live
like two trees
Your roots have found each other underground
And through their paths of growth
have intertwined
and clasped each other tightly in support
and travel now together, where they find
the sustenance of secret aquifers

The rising surge of life propels you upwards
To stretch your branches splendid in the sun
And there you dance —
The lyrics of your blended song
reflect the ancient rhythms
You each learned when you were seeds
and the shared harmonics
of the present breeze

So will you meet each sun-filled hour
each wind-sent storm, each drenching shower
in graceful strength, in steady power
And grounded there, your souls will soar
as you embrace your precious destiny:
enduring growth in sacred unity.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 17, 2012





Love and Magic: Three Enchantments

 I.
When people love
they make magic
Everything living responds to it
Land rises up at its touch
Joyfully bends as it bends them
Brings forth a beauty
that calls forth their love again
making both ever more rich.
II.
In the dance of love
The will does not reside in either entity
It hovers in that charged and potent
mystic space between them
When they move to follow it
it’s nothing like
the simple, hollow closure
that comes from exercising one’s own will
It’s an exhilaration
and it brings a jubilation
and a satisfaction nothing else can fill.
III.
Magic is real
It is the dance of love
Everyone who loves creates it
sparkling in everything they touch
Others, when they see it, know it
Even if it’s nothing they can name
That which has been loved
will lift them
Bless them so they’ll never be the same. 

©Wendy Mulhern
March 27, 2012


(background music: Isaac Shepard, “Into Spring”)



Another Lullaby

Time for another lullaby
One that melts us all into a deep dream
Where all the words that missed,
intentions misinterpreted,
impressions gone awry —
can there dissolve, be fully washed away
And everyone who felt entangled
in the things about themselves
they wish were changed
can move out free
Their only impetus their deepest essence
and the pure desires
that guide their shining
In the morning, may the dream remain
Establishing the pattern for a fresh start
Where nothing blocks the good we may attain
And where our actions fully show
what’s in our hearts.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 26, 2012



Languages


Perhaps the language of words
is overrated
There’s really only so much words can do
You can use words all day
and not be satiated
Words can leave you worse than empty, too
There are some other languages that can’t lie:
What’s said with touch,
with movements synchronized
with laughter, gesture, easy time together
and signals sent across from eye to eye
consider what we can communicate:
the hum of home, the grace of shared space
the heart’s current, and its precious weight
the way our love so naturally reciprocates
Words may frame thoughts
but still be thin
It takes the other languages
to fill them in.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2012


The Currency of Hearts



for Leo and Magda

For those who understand
the currency of hearts
nothing else is needed
though many things can be used
A smile, a hug, an offering of food
A sympathetic tear, consoling words
The currency of hearts
affords a richness
you can’t accrue in any other way
It multiplies its treasure instantly
Fills souls with joy as sun fills up the day
It doesn’t matter what you have
How large your gift, how polished you appear
It’s not the gift that makes you rich
But that you honored
your own heart’s desire
to share.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 24, 2012


(background music: Isaac Shepard, “Triumph of Love”)





Wedding Poem

For Casey and David

March 24, 2012

Two trees
Stand side by side
Each one has grown according to its species —
followed the demands of its own essence —
Yet over time the trees have grown together
Their branches making room for one another

And underneath the ground
Their roots are intertwined
So they support each other
and they find
a common sustenance within the deep ground
and shared appreciation for the rich land

You two are like those trees
You blend your sweet graces
You draw a common sustenance
from deep places
and send your leafy blessings towards the sun
You revel in life’s breeze
and sway as one

And may your lives, like trees
be rich and strong
And may your branches join the wind in song
May you enjoy companionship together
and shelter all the places you belong.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 17, 2012



Time In

Let me give you a “time in” —
A time of contact,
of enough cuddle
to be an answer to your lost cries
A time in
Like time before time
when everyone knew
what to do about cries
that cry meant cuddle me
Bring me in
Let me know home
Oh yes
Now is the time
for time in
for everyone:
The hothead
The curmudgeon
The one who cringes inside his shell
darting in alarm at each approach
The one who sits alone
The one who sits with all her so-called friends
hiding isolation under loud words
The ones who make their dogged resolutions
with no idea what would earn the in ticket
The ones who hide their keening under sharp motion
The ones who try all day but can’t fix it
Oh World!
Let us give each other time in
Let us come home to connection
until we have the circuits to unite
in tender understanding and affection.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 22, 2012


Basic Needs – A Checklist

For someone to find you magnificent
in the peculiar, unvaunted ways you are yourself;
For you to feel the same about another;
To freely give the world that whole magnificence
in ways that make it multiply;
For your magnificence to blend with that of others
creating one grand splendid harmony
a seamless shining fabric made of life;
A center still point and a way to get there;
A way to see grace, and the habit of noticing.

If we commit to meeting basic needs
What greatness we shall know!  What joy,
What peace!

©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2012


Monday, downtown

Monday Downtown (background music: Isaac Shepard “Before Dawn”)


Oh, humanity!
Working at your tired charades
Moving through so many empty boxes
Desiccated corridors
Courses without meaning

Look how amazing you are!
Look how, even when the rules are cast
to close out any purpose, light or joy
You still find ways to shine:
Within this skewed account of life
your light slips through the chinks
and though at times refracted
blazes forth
Makes us maybe take a while to notice
all the places where it is suppressed
Just think: if we were free
what brilliance we would show

It is our destiny
We will prevail
We will shine clear
We’ll banish all the false demands
The failed array of hoops, constrictive bands
Deny the faulty purposes
that disappointed us
Swing free
on the strength of our unstoppable
creative rush!

©Wendy Mulhern
March 19, 2012


Lullaby for Heather



Mother Love, wrap up your child
in comprehensive arms
Broad enough to hold her every hope
Soft enough to nurture all her charms
Close enough to smooth her brow
and rest her eyes
Strong enough to bear her 
swiftly through the dreaming skies
Synchronize her heart with yours
Refresh her with your peace
Deliver her with clarity
and new found ease
Mother Love, infuse her with
your bright delight
and bold and brilliant action
in the morning light.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 18, 2012

(background music: Max Richter, “Fragment”)